Sobbing woman claims to be winner of the US$1 billion lottery prize (VIDEO)
It was a lottery prize that made history.
After 39 draws without a winner, on Wednesday, July 19, a lucky lottery player won a mammoth Powerball jackpot worth US$1.08 billion (C$1.4 billion), with a cash value of $558.1 million (C$734 million). It’s the third-largest Powerball jackpot and the sixth-largest US lottery jackpot ever won, according to a release.
The ticket was sold in Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles, and TV crews were crowded inside the tiny convenience store when a visibly emotional woman came in crying and claiming to be the billion-dollar winner.
The woman, wearing a black baseball cap and denim jacket, fell to her knees in front of the cameras as she wailed, “God bless you! Thank you! Thank you!”
People came forward to hug and congratulate her.
“Are you the winner?” someone asked.
“Yes,” she answered, sobbing.
Watch the video below:
According to Inside Edition, the woman said that she came to the store to thank employees, but when reporters started asking more questions, she ran from the store and into a black BMW.
When a reporter showed the store co-owner Navor Herrera the clip of the incident, he said, “I think it’s fake.”
“You don’t recognize that woman?” asked the reporter.
“No,” he said. “I know the customers.”
However, his daughter, Angelica Menjivar, said that it was possible that the woman is the actual winner and that the woman’s mother had purchased the ticket from the store.
Sarai Palacios, Herrera’s granddaughter, told Daily Mail that the real winner hasn’t come forward yet and that the woman was not the winner.
“She didn’t win, I’m not sure why she did that,” she said. “I guess she just wanted to be on TV.”
As for whether or not the woman was the rightful winner, Carolyn Becker, a representative of the California State Lottery, said that it’s going to take a while until they officially announce a winner.
“There would be no way for us to verify today in a formal process that would vet any person, so anybody who claims to be the winner isn’t valid until we say it is,” she said.
But someone did get their prize after the win.
As per the game’s rules in California, the retailer gets a 0.5% share of the jackpot, with a maximum limit of US$1 million.
Herrera and his wife Maria Leticia Menjivar, who co-owns the store, are now US$1 million richer, according to KATU2ABC. The couple has four kids, and Herrera said he plans to celebrate their win by treating the family to a vacation.
He added that he plans to expand his store.
He told the Associated Press, “The store is small but the luck there is big.”